We are so anxious to achieve some particular end that we never pay attention to the psycho-physical means whereby that end is to be gained. So far as we are concerned, any old means is good enough. But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

Aldous Huxley

Humility does not mean believing oneself to be inferior, but to be freed from self-importance. It is a state of natural simplicity which is in harmony with our true nature and  allows us to taste the freshness of the present moment.

Matthieu Ricar

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride, and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too." The children thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one I feed."

The spirit of poetry came to me and said "You poor thing. You don't know how to listen. Listen to me. Listen." When I began to listen to poetry is when I began to listen to stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And what is most important for all of us, is to learn  to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself, in here, but which is also the soul of everyone else.

The Native American poet Joy Harjo on PBS

The grudge you hold on to is like a hot coal that you intend to throw at someone, only you're the one who gets burned.

Siddhartha Gautama

Do not take lightly small good deeds,
Believing they can hardly help.
For drops of water, one by one,
In time can fill a giant pot.

-Patrul Rinpoche

Do you know what is really new? The latest is that breath that just came. That's  the newest thing in this whole universe. That is the newest thing. And you just  got it. And it left - and here comes a new one. And it just left. And here comes another one. I'm trying to point out the magic of that existence to you. Just the magic that's there. That's heaven.

-Maharaji

When you sit in the full lotus position, your left foot is on your right thigh and your right foot is on your left thigh. When we cross our legs like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they have become one. The position expresses  the oneness of duality: not two and not one. Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.

- Shunryu Suzuki

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish. When the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten.
The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a person who has forgotten words? That person is the one I would like to talk to.

Chuang-Tzu

Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.  The more we witness our emotional chain reactions  and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice.

-Pema Chodron

How many times have you tried to shield yourself by reading the newspaper, watching television, or just spacing out? That is the $64,000 question: how much have you  connected with yourself at all in your whole life?

-Chogyam Trungpa

To our most bitter opponents we say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory."

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.  And whatever affects one directly affects all.  For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to  be.  And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

-Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Look. This is your world! You can't not look. There is no other world. This is your world; it is your feast. You inherited this; you inherited these eyeballs; you inherited this world of color. Look at the greatness of the whole thing. Look! Don't hesitate—look! Open your eyes. Don't blink and look, look—look further.

-Chogyam Trungp

There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems  in physics because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.

-J. Robert Oppenheimer

All those who are unhappy in the world are so as a result of their desire for their own happiness. All those who are happy in the world are so as a result of their desire for the happiness of others.

-Shantideva

Without the rigidity of concepts, the world becomes transparent and illuminated,  as though lit from within. With this understanding, the interconnectedness of all that lives becomes very clear. We see that nothing is stagnant and nothing is fully separate, that who we are, what we are, is intimately woven into the nature of life itself. Out of this sense of connection, love and compassion arise.

-Sharon Salzberg

The search is what anyone would undertake if they were not sunk in the everydayness of their own lives. To become aware of the possibility of a search is to be on to something. Not to be on to something is to be in despair.

-Walker Percy

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.

-Richard Bach

Children, old people, vagabonds laugh easily and heartily: they have nothing to lose and hope for little.
In renunciation lies a delicious taste of simplicity
and deep peace.

-Matthieu Ricard

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only those who see take off their shoes.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning